Ray was captivated by the equipment and activity of printing from his earliest days, recalling afternoons spent with the workers as a ‘fascinating experience’. The family lived in the back of the house.
The business was run from the house in which Ray was born, with the ground floor given over to the printing presses, and the compositors and block-makers taking up the first floor. In 1895, Ray’s grandfather, Upendra Kishore Ray, had founded a printing firm, setting himself up as Kolkata’s first high-quality process engraver. This course seemed a natural progression, for printing had been the business of his highly cultured family. His passion for the art of cinema was certainly present – in 1948, Ray was one of the founders of the Calcutta Film Society, set up to cultivate a greater awareness of film as an art – but it was as an illustrator and graphic designer that he was forging his career. He was art director at an advertising agency called DJ Keymer, where his artistic talents and willingness to experiment had already brought him recognition and success. Image Courtesy of Ray Estate and Society for the Preservation of Satyajit Ray Archives.Īt only 30 years old, Ray was already Bengal’s outstanding commercial artist. Satyajit Ray, Illustration from Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay’s novel, Aam Atir Bhenpu. Ray made films that showed a deep and enduring connection between his sensibility as an artist and the possibilities of cinema, honed by years of experience that was both pioneering and practical. It is embodied in the work of Bengal’s most influential filmmaker, Satyajit Ray (1921–1992), a creative genius who also worked as an illustrator, graphic designer and typographer.
#POSTER OF PATHER PANCHALI MOVIE#
A thousand miles north, the city of Kolkata has a distinct legacy of movie poster art that is as unique to its traditions of regional film-making as Chennai’s hoardings were to Kollywood. They were bold, garish and fun, with figures that were larger than life. We saw the huge painted billboards advertising Tamil films every day on our way to work. I miss the movie posters that lined Anna Salai in Chennai. Much before Satyajit Ray became iconic for his path-breaking films, there was a legacy of fine art that existed and continued to flourish and inform his film making journey through his inventive posters, cover designs, illustrations and use of calligraphy Suzanne M c Neill
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